This disclosure is generally related to wireless communications technologies. Further, this disclosure is related to Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) technologies under IEEE Standard 802.16 and, in particular, is directed to Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (“WiMAX”) technologies under IEEE Standard 802.16e. In one or more embodiments, this disclosure is directed to a system and method useful for displaying time sensitive alerts in a WiMAX handset or other device. More particularly, this disclosure is directed to a system and method for receiving real-time alerts device with user-selected display options on a WiMAX mobile device.
Conventionally, various types of alerts and notifications are made available through the World Wide Web (WWW), through email list servers (“listserves”), and/or through short messaging service (SMS) messages. Such alerts and notifications may include, for example, crime reports, Amber alerts (i.e., missing or abducted person alerts), Presidential alerts, weather alerts, Homeland Security alerts, fire department notifications, city/country traffic alerts, seismic and tsunami alerts, and financial alerts, etc.
An RSS feed (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format, e.g., XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds allow readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be an application program that is web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. Standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URL or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new items, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Such conventional approaches typically include using a message or program icon sitting on the screen of the user's device, e.g., a handheld “smartphone” or other mobile device or handset, and require the running of an application program on the mobile device. Viewing of such messages conventionally requires that an application program interface (API) be enabled on the mobile device, and that limited memory and processor resources must be allocated in the mobile device to store and process such messages, while running a particular type of program, e.g., a web browser or e-mail program.
What is needed is a system and method that reduces or eliminates the conventional requirement for allocation of limited memory and processing resources in a mobile device in connection with the display of time-sensitive alerts and news items. What is even further needed is system and method that reduces or eliminates the conventional requirement for allocation of limited memory and processing resources in a mobile device and which makes efficient use of limited bandwidth (i.e., reduces the “overhead” traffic over the network) associated with the display of time-sensitive alerts or other messages/information in a mobile communications system.